ShawneeDispatch.com

Shawnee — To the Editor:

Why can’t we build a school right? In my opinion, poor planning, design and construction has always caused us distress and that’s why this bond failed. It’s time we stop pointing fingers at each other and demand change from our current Board of Education on how we build. Out with the old and take bids on the new.

The old De Soto High School building supposedly could not be added onto. The new high school was to be built to hold 1,000 students. It was down-sized due to lack of funds to hold 750. DHS barely holds the 400 kids going there now. Lexington Trails Middle School , the old DHS, suddenly became expandable and we recently added a new facade with no educational benefit to our children. We also added a new A/C unit because, although the old one had years of service left, the new one has a longer shelf life. We spent over $800,000 adding kitchen space at DHS that may not be as big as the ladies restroom.

Mill Valley High School is supposed to hold 1,000. Besides being built on a known underground spring, its bursting at the seams with just under that figure. The recent bond that failed proposed to increase size to 1,350, but intelligent voters realized it would have been a Band-Aid. Those poor parents who think increasing it to 1,350 would assure their child’s future attendance would have been drawing straws to see who got in.

Let’s talk about the proposed theater to hold 1,000. If they increased the school size to 1,350 where were the other 350 kids supposed to sit?

Mill Creek Middle School was built a year early and our children paid for it to sit empty. Starside was supposed to hold 550 and at just under 500, taking into consideration all their special needs programs, is using all available space to accomodate classes.

We have $6 million in capitol outlay reserved to make us look loanable. A good thing to have in our arsenal I suppose, but carving out $1.7 million to help our Starside students wouldn’t put us in a bind.

And look at their parking lots or lack thereof. Overflow parents park on the street or in the administration parking area. Lots of grassy areas we pay to be mowed and students never step foot on.

How many times have patrons of this district had to pay for the mistakes made by our architects and buildng manager/construction company (now that’s a bad combo) such as: firewalls, replacing gym floors due to groundwater that was there when they built it, forgetting to draw a track on plans, valves that weren’t added in, and more? Did the designers or construction people pay for these mistakes? No. Our kids did with the money that should have gone towards classrooms and education.

These mistakes are facts printed in our respected local paper, the De Soto Explorer, this past year. A majority of voters who chose to exercise their right realized that a vote yes would have continued the ties between our administration, the architect and the building manager. I suggest we re-read the archives, attend the Oct. 1 BOE meeting, demand change or keep smelling fish.

Sam Tyler

De Soto

Comments

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1. 26 September 2007 at 8:19 a.m.

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   SpareMe (Anonymous) says…

   What ties exist between the administration and the construction company and architects? These are pretty heavy accusations to make against someone without any facts? I'm not a patron of the school district, nor do I work there, but if someone accused me of something that was not substantiated with facts I'd contact an attorney. I've never heard of a paper printing allegations without first verifying the validity of them. I see no verification of these facts. While this may be a letter to the editor, the paper does have some responsibility to not allow wild accusations that could tarnish the reputation of individuals and a district.

   I think I'll contact the administration and give them all the name of a good attorney.

2. 26 September 2007 at 10:40 a.m.

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   WestShawneeResident (Anonymous) says…

   This is unbelievable. Just more of the half-truths, innuendo and lies spewed forth from the father-in-law of the BOE member that started them. This is a very sad day in this community. Did someone mention “secession”? This letter doesn't meet the smell test.

3. 26 September 2007 at 11:04 a.m.

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   shawneemom2 (Anonymous) says…

   Please do your research and get the facts straight. Just a couple of misleading inaccuracies….there are 549 students at De Soto High (not 400)…..Mill Creek Middle School was NOT built early and sitting empty - it was completed right before opening…..do you really think putting in enough parking spaces to allow for every students family is cost effective?….the most accurate source of information regarding the bidding process, bids specific to projects and resolutions to problems that arose during contruction would be the school board meeting minutes that are available at www.USD232.org. The writer has one thing entirely correct…we all need to do our research!

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